Yunnan

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT YUNNAN - PAGE 4

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have arrested and charged the chairman of the world's largest producer of refined tin, Yunnan Tin Co, for accepting bribes, a provincial government said, in the latest example of the country's crackdown on graft. President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a key plank of his new administration, saying the problem is so severe it could affect the ruling Communist Party's survival. Yunnan Tin chairman Lei Yi had been charged with taking 20 million yuan ($3.27 million)

Motorola Inc.'s cellular infrastructure group said it was awarded a $45 million contract from China United Telecommunications Corp. to expand the global system for mobile communications networks in the Jiangsu province of China. Separately, Motorola's Asia-Pacific paging networks division announced it has signed a $10 million deal to provide a Flex high-speed multifrequency roaming paging network in China's Yunnan province.

A strong earthquake shook southwest China's Yunnan province early Sunday, killing at least two and injuring hundreds, state media reported. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 and hit about 1,470 miles southwest of Beijing. More than 200 people were injured, 15 seriously, in the temblor-prone area, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.---------- Items compiled from Tribune news services.

A series of free public lectures on the Chinese language, history and anthropology will be led off Tuesday by He Liyi, an author from Yunnan Province, China. Liyi's book, "Mr. China's Son," details his life from 1957, when the struggle against the Rightists began, to the late 1980s. The book also explores his life during the Cultural Revolution. This is Liyi's first visit to the United States and only his second trip outside China. For more information, call the International Education office at 630-942-3078.

China slaughtered 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered crackdown after three people died of rabies, sparking unusually pointed criticism in state media Tuesday. The five-day slaughter in Mouding County in Yunnan province in southwest China ended Sunday and spared only military dogs and police canine units, media reported. Dogs being walked were seized from owners and beaten to death on the spot, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. Led by the county police chief, killing teams entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking and then beat the animals to death, reports said.

If you're willing to give up tea bags briefly for a flirtation with loose teas, here are some recommendations of black types (not specific brands, though) from tea buyer Helen Gustafson. The descriptions are hers. Many big firms such as Twinings and Bigelow offer their own blends based on these. - A basic black Yunnan (a southern province of China), one of many types from that region. Look for "golden tips" in the mix; these are young leaf buds picked early. (Imperial Tea Court in San Francisco will sell its Imperial Yunnan ($80 per pound; also sold by the ounce)

Let's just pencil in every few months for a Tony Hu opening. Having most-recently taken over the Spring World space in May and rebranded it as Lao Yunnan (serving the food of Yunnan province), the Chinatown restauranteur has now taken over Lure, formerly a Japanese izakaya, to open his seventh Lao concept: Lao Mala. The soft opening is scheduled for Wednesday. In this case, the restaurant isn't centered on any one geography. Ma La is the Chinese term for numbing-spicy, the novacaine-like sensation when biting into Sichuan peppercorns.

When Chen Lifa nips across the China-Burma border, his shopping list could feature Sylvester Stallone videos, contraceptive pills and jadeite. Chen, a 28-year-old trader from eastern Zhejiang Province, moved to China's southwest tip three years ago seeking to profit from border trade. "I'll trade anything that makes me money," he joked. "Anything legal, that is." Chen isn't alone. Border trade is booming in Yunnan Province, a land of towering mountains and lush rain forests that shares a 4,060-kilometer boundary with Burma, Laos and Vietnam.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has forcibly returned scores of ethnic Kachins who have fled Myanmar because of civil war, putting them at risk of armed violence and abuse by Myanmar's army, a human rights group said on Friday. Up to 10,000 Kachins have sought refuge in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan after fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Myanmar's government flared up in the middle of 2011 following a 17-year truce, according to aid groups. Diplomats say the conflict in Kachin state is one of the biggest tests for Myanmar's new civilian government's reform effort.